RussianOrthodoxChurchopenschannelonYouTube

The Russian Orthodox Church officially opened its channel on the YouTube video content service at a presentation on Monday.

The Russian Orthodox Church officially opened its channel on the YouTube video content service at a presentation on Monday.

The presentation took place at the fourth international festival of Orthodox Christian media entitled Faith and Word in downtown Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia blessed the channel and said it is called upon to make the Church closer to young people.

"We are doing this just to make the word of God, divine wisdom and the law of God, which is the law of life, closer to the life of the modern person, especially the youth," the head of the Russian Church said in a video address on YouTube.

Kirill said he will be glad if those watching video materials on the hosting service "feel interest in the Church's life."

"YouTube is a noticeable phenomenon in modern cultural life. Hundreds of millions of people use this system to obtain information on the Internet through their personal computers," he said.

"It is very important that church representation is now appearing in this system," the patriarch said.

The channel will offer the Church's opinion on urgent issues, cover the patriarch's services and inform the viewers of the key events in church life.

The channel has 200 subscribers now. Its programs will include broadcasting of divine services, sermons and interviews.

"Let God's blessing be with all those who open the website, the viewers and users of the Russian Orthodox Church's representation on YouTube," Kirill said.

Moscow Patriarchate spokesman Vladimir Legoida said the church channel had been partly closed to the public for almost three months and gained 150,000 views during that time.

Russian Church representatives have repeatedly said that the Church should use Internet to bring its ideas to the general public.

The Vatican launched its four-language channel on YouTube in January 2009 with more than 25,000 subscribers so far.